Tour in Bngland—Practical Farming. 
mt 
rich lands, in a wild, distant, unknown, and 
unhealthy region—hundreds, or perhaps a 
thousand miles off. Verily it must be said of 
us, that we are a restless, roving, nomadic 
people. But there is no part of America as 
yet where a crowded population exists, and 
there is not that necessity for emigration, 
therefore, as in this old world; besides, other 
things unknown to us, bear on the people 
here, such as exorbitant tithes and taxes, and 
entailed privileges, which force many more 
independent families to remove than other¬ 
wise would, were the dense population of 
Great Britain alone considered. 
We hope Sir Edmund was sufficiently 
mindful to reward his poor cottagers for 
•setting him so good and profitable an exam¬ 
ple, in breaking up and fertilizing his poor 
heath land. As we understand from the ex¬ 
amination frequently of what we suppose si¬ 
milar land, his sub-soil was gravelly and suf¬ 
ficiently porous to take in all superabundant 
water; with Mr. Smith the case is the re¬ 
verse ; his soil is a stiff clay, and without 
thorough draining, the expense of sub-soil 
plowing would have been entirely thrown 
away, as it wouM only make a deeper bed to 
hold the accumulating waters of the extraor¬ 
dinary wet climate of Great Britain. 
Sir Edmund Stracey made use of another 
instrument somewhat similar, on his perma¬ 
nent grass land, called the sub-turf plow.— 
41 It is used/’ he says, u to loosen the turf 
about ten and a half inches deep below the 
surface, without turning over the flag ; loosen¬ 
ing the soil underneath, consequently admit¬ 
ting the air and the rain, and permitting the 
roots of the herbage to spread in search of 
food. There are no marks left by which it 
can be known that the land has been so plow¬ 
ed, except from the straight lines of the 
coulter, at the distance of about 14 inches 
one from another. In about three months 
from the time of plowing, these lines are to¬ 
tally obliterated, and the quantity of after- 
math, and the thickness of the bottom, have 
been the subject of admiration of all my 
neighbors. Another advantage from this 
sub-turf plowing is, that before that took 
place, water was lying stagnant in many parts 
after heavy rains, especially in the lower 
grounds to a great depth ; now no water is 
to be seen lying on any part, the whole be¬ 
ing absorbed by the earth.” 
In addition to the beneficial effects of the 
sub-soil plow for grass, grain, and long roots, 
we saw equally good effects produced from 
its introduction in the preparation of the soil 
for turnips, and we cannot but think that sub¬ 
soil plowing in our own country would be a 
complete preventive to winter killing wheat, 
for when the land was thus prepared, the 
roots of the grain would penetrate so deeply 
into the earth that the freezings and thaw¬ 
ings of early spring could not affect them, 
especially if the wheat was sowed as early 
as the first week in September for the lath 
tude of New York, and plowed in about three 
inches deep, and the ground left in its rough 
state without harrowing or rolling. 
Note. —Since the foregoing was sent to 
press, we have received the English Agricul¬ 
tural Journals for August, and find in the 
London Farmer’s Magazine, the report of a 
lecture by Mr. Smith, of Beanston, on 
Thorough Draining and Sub-soil Plowing, 
before the Royal Agricultural Society, at its 
annual meeting in July, at Bristol, further 
elucidating the subject alluded to in our let¬ 
ter, and bringing another year’s experience 
and practice in his improvements. We have 
marked several passages of this admirable 
lecture for insertion in our November num¬ 
ber, and again call the attention of our read¬ 
ers to the subject. They will find an engrav¬ 
ing of a cheap and simply constructed sub¬ 
soil plow on page 28 of the April No. of this 
periodical, and for the best experiment de¬ 
tailed us of sub-soil plowing and cultivating 
grain, grass, or root crops, in America, we 
offer the premium of five year’s subscription 
of the American Agriculturist; for the second 
best, three years; and for the third, one 
year’s subscription. 
Practical Farming—Wheatsheaf Farm. 
In a brief visit we recently made to the 
farm of W. A. Seeley, Esq., of Staten Island, 
we noticed much worthy of imitation that is 
not in general use; and as we deem a detail 
in the practice of such improvements as we 
desire to inculcate, the most pleasing, intel¬ 
ligible, and effectual mode of making them 
understood, and commending to general ac¬ 
ceptance, we think we cannot better occupy 
the attention of our readers for a few mo¬ 
ments, than by laying before them some of 
the operations of one of the best practical 
and theoretical agriculturists of the present 
day. The farm of Mr. S. consists of about 
two hundred acres, of considerable diversity 
of soil, from a sandy beach, through almost 
every variety of light gravelly loam, to the 
stiffest clay. The eastern side is bounded 
by a bay, which is connected with the Atlan¬ 
tic, and it rises gradually from the beach to 
a moderate elevation in the rear, of from 60 
I to 75 feet. Most of the land is undulating, 
